Budget

Yup, I'm definitely getting sick. I made it through work today, feeling mostly gross, but trying to be optimistic. James was sent home from work and picked me up right after I got off, meaning we had about an hour and a half of free time before we needed to head to premarital counseling. An hour of that was spent preparing and eating dinner. The other half hour? Hard-core nap time. 

Premarital tonight was about money and budget. For me, this session was glorious. I'm a big rules person when it comes to most things. I feel safer inside the confines of some parameters. This doesn't mean that I don't enjoy breaking the "rules" and doing whatever (as I feel that's a pretty human desire), it's just that too much rule-breaking leaves me feeling empty, chaotic, and uneasy. James, on the other hand, is what Travis tonight called a "free spirit" with his money. James understands the need for budgets and line items and financial plans, but talking about them stresses him out. As we sat there tonight, I did my best to write him reassuring little notes and to give him encouraging, meaningful glances to let him know how much I appreciate his being willing to sit through a 2 hour lesson on how to and not to spend money.

One of the things we've been good at over the last several years is we've become great communicators. I mean to say, we communicate often and with dedication to a solution, not that we're super skilled at the actual communication point. Thus tonight's class was a lot a review of things we'd already talked about, plans we'd already made. Score one for team James-and-Grace.